09-05-2017, 06:54 PM
(08-20-2017, 12:17 PM)Stranger Wrote:(04-29-2011, 06:40 PM)Turtle Wrote: --An update of my self experimentation of inner balancing--
if an external catalyst of any sort affects me in any great way, I then follow Ra's guidance on using my imagination to "live out" any suppressed desires...I am highly enjoying the use of my imagination to experience any suppressed desires that I have forgotten I have, or that I might pick up throughout the day, so that I do not live them out in the external world. I did not practice this much before, and I highly suggest this.
I am quite concerned about this practice (not for you, obviously - do what works for you) - but in general. I'm not sure there is a huge difference between living something out in the imagination or in real life, in terms of how it affects us (as opposed to the other person - clearly, in imagination there's no other person to harm).
However, we are still focusing our attention, and what we focus our attention on, grows.
Looking at porn, for instance, and living out fantasies in one's mind can't help but reinforce those pathways in the brain/mind, making associated thoughts, desires and ideas more likely to keep popping up and expand. Thus strengthened, the desires will produce a growing discrepancy between desire and reality, increasing pressure to pursue whatever it is one's desiring, and therefore also increasing discontent. I also see the possibility that within oneself, acting out on STS desires in imagination produces STS inner states - real, not imaginary - again, strengthening these tendencies.
Our consciousness is surrounded by both external sensations and our internal environment. Here's a metaphor: at all times, you're in a room made entirely of glass. That is your inner world of thoughts, emotions, desires, etc. The external world can only come to you after passing through the contents of that glass room.
What effect will it have on you if you wallpaper the room with porn?
I agree with Ra that suppressing desires is unhelpful (though better than acting them out). One alternative approach is to simply witness them arising - recognizing that they're coming from a distorted-away-from-Love part of oneself and have nothing to do with the core You, the ever-loving, balanced Consciousness. They are then free to come and go as they please.
Just my two cents!
Over my life I have experienced extreemely vivid "dreams" that I recognise as often arising from my desires and emotions. The method I have eventually come to for dealing with these is to finish them in as many different ways as I can imagine the situation going, in effort to find the best possible outcome for all living beings involved in it. This has helped me gain a greater awareness of what I really desire, and also a uniquely sharp awareness of how I act on my desires affects other beings.